Ah, it’s been a minute since I’ve taken a seat before a new post and wracked my brain for a suitable title. It’s been Pi Day, National Puppy Day, Easter, and Everything You Do is Right Day (?!), so before another kooky or totally traditional holiday passes us by (or before I lead y’all to believe I was ridden unconscious by Daylight Savings), I thought it was about time I make all of those photographing-editing-before-the-post-is-written things happen and get a-writin’ on here.

Now, this “minute” has been filled with many hours of folding multi-colored paper and, before that, waiting for these papers to arrive in the mail. If you thought origami, you have correctly decoded the title or speed-scrolled through the post to look at the photos first (coughmysister)—or you’re just psychic. I thought, for tinykale’s first gander into crafts, I’d start with one that required minimal and easily accessible materials. (For easily accessible materials, they took a good three days to arrive in the mail, with an impromptu trip on day 1.5 to Michaels because I felt way too unproductive, but I really wanted it to look nice, okay.)

Yes, yes, I succumbed to pretty patterns and multi-colored paper, but in truth, this can all be done at home, say, the next time you’re scrambling for a gift and realize it’s too late to order anything online. There’s just something so personal about it, and you can always add customizing touches (we’ll get to that later). And if you have your birthdays and special occasions all memorized and gifts prepared for, there are a million and one other possibilities. Invitations, notes, party favors, a colorful and creative touch to your stationary…Heck, soon you’ll be whipping out your paper whenever you’re bored, and I promise it’ll reap more long-lasting and pretty-to-look-at results than half an hour of scrolling Lil Bub’s Instagram (it’s okay, I do it, too.)

So, we’ve made it to paragraph four, and the stop babbling reminder is flashing, so let’s just go ahead and break this down.

★ – paper.

There are quite a few tutorials for you to create your own origami paper using only printer paper, a ruler, and scissors, but I’d only suggest that for emergency situations. Besides being a lot easier, picking up some origami paper at your local crafts store is more preferable overall because the paper is a bit thinner and more flexible than regular paper, so its texture really aids in the folding and creasing process (especially if there are a lot of small, intricate folds). The packaged ones at the store also come in perfect squares, and there are few things worse in origami than pieces of paper that are supposed to be square…and aren’t. You fold that first corner, and it’s not quite perfect, but you just continue. And all is well until that imperfect corner just comes haunting you once you come face-to-face with it a few steps down the road…This is all obviously from personal experience.

Under the umbrella of origami paper, there are a few kinds, and I tried out two this time:

There’s the classic kami (or koi) paper, which has that gloriously thin material and makes really crisp folds. The package I ordered has color on one side, and the other side is basically a faded, lighter version of the other, since the color comes through. The one I picked up at Michaels is double sided, and I used that for patterns that had both sides showing (like the cat, which you will see soon!)

Then there’s washi paper, which is made up of renewable fibers, which makes it stronger than ordinary printer paper. Basically, its texture is more like money than it is like printer paper because of the fibers.

I also used some lucky star strips to create, you guessed it, lucky stars, but it doesn’t really qualify as an official kind of paper. Rather, it feels like origami paper, if not thinner, cut into long rectangles.

While browsing Amazon for paper, I noticed some reviews saying that some manufacturers ending up producing some that weren’t exactly square. So, if you’re trying to fold your paper diagonally, and if it’s the case that one edge just won’t match no matter what, you could trim it down with a ruler and something sharp like an x-acto knife.

★ – tutorial.

Now, if you’re here reading my amateur origami-ing self babble, I’m assuming you don’t have these origami creation how-tos in your head. So, naturally, we turn to the interwebs, and as convenient as the printed tutorials that usually come with the paper are, there’s just an innumerable trove online, and I personally prefer watching + following over deciphering the little arrows and dotted lines. (I believe only two of the items I made were from image tutorials, but they weren’t too confusing!) Now, of all the videos I perused, there was one channel that I fell in love with: origamispirit (and that is probably reflected in the tutorials I liked because many are from her channel). Leyla Torres is like your cool grandma you’re super excited to visit because she always has gifts and candy. But instead of gifts and candy, they’re crazily intricate paper figures, and you’re left wondering if your grandmother is the paper fairy. And, yes, this is partly in truth because she mentions making her five grandchildren things, so let’s say the rest of that was realistic fiction…

Alright, but in actuality, I love her tutorials because they’re very high quality, and little things just make the video effortless to follow (like this little pointer thing that she uses instead of actually pointing with her finger because accuracy). I listen through a step, watch the demonstration, and then pause until I do the same. This goes for all tutorials, but I would ensure that I’ve heard the entire step before proceeding because sometimes there’s that little bit saying you should only do half a crease instead of a full one, but you already paused before hearing that part and then…You get the idea.

I’ve learned that with origami, all the folds end up having a purpose, so don’t be afraid to pause. Match up the edges instead of just messily squashing down a fold because, more times than not, it ends up showing up in the final product or making a later step harder to execute.

★ – diy ideas.

fashion baby hangers out of paper clips, and these dresses will make a colorful accent for any fashionista in your life. there’s also ample space on the back for perhaps a handwritten invitation! as for the bow, this was the only item that i had to use scissors for to make the two points at the ends of the ribbon.

tip: to make consistent lengths for the dresses, keep matching the approximate folds with your first dress. i think this is a very nice opportunity to use your patterned washi paper so you can see all the different layers; it also holds the pleats in the dresses very well.

super cute to hang on a bulletin or along your wall. gift it to your friend, and instead of rainbow, color it the colors of his/her college or favorite color(s)! these become easier and easier to fold once you get the hang of it, and their puffiness makes for a very nice 3-d effect.

put all your stars in a mason jar with layers of alternating colors, or just sprinkle them in a bag of party favors for a dainty touch! (no stubby nails were harmed in this process, though pinching those star corners was a trip…)

tip: this is super simple to form. make sure your edges are even and taunt, or else the corners of the stars become more difficult to pinch neatly and easily at the end.

this is for those lil bub lovers out there or for anyone who appreciates an adorable paper manifestation of a furry friend. you can probably swap out the cat for a puppy head (that sounds really wrong), which you can find here! it’s actually pretty sturdy, and it can hold anything from candy (gigantically sized jelly beans, in my case) to paper clips. i used the double sided kami for this because the other side of the paper is revealed where the snout part is.

tip: the size of the paper for the cat’s head is a quarter of the original size of paper used for the body, so to divide it neatly and also to ensure it stays perfectly square for the most part, i folded it in half horizontally and vertically very sharply so it formed quarters and then ran my x-acto knife along the crease. run your finger over the fold a few times to really set the fold, and the knife glides easily through to make a clean cut.

hands down the most complex item i folded but also my favorite. pay attention, make those crisp lines, and the dachshund ends up looking so. cute. plus, it’s a slinky dog!! so it just ends up being totally worth the half hour of your day.

tip: i wanted to make an orangey/brown dachshund, and i didn’t have a paper with a darker color on the other side, so the nose ended up a little lost in the final pic, so you can totally use a dual-colored sheet of paper for this or just color in the nose with a marker! i would recommend kami because of its thinness, which lends itself to the many small folds, especially since i used a rather standard size (5.9 x 5.9 inches, i believe.) kami paper also forms crisper lines than washi. (the side profile of the dog, as you can see, has a lot of sharp edges.)

these are cute as heck desktop decorations and holds just as well as the cat box, if not better because it’s not standing on anything.

tip: i used washi paper for all of them except the star box, but they both held with equal durability. i saw the love box made with a solid red color, and that really made the heart pop, but unless you use a size of paper larger than 5.9 x 5.9 inches, i think washi is a nice option, especially when you get to folding the small (like. small. small.) hearts. kami might become weaker if you fold it a lot of times or if you have awkwardly clammy hands in making super intricate things situations…same.

the lucky stars were super easy to form, but this simply takes the cake for easiest. there are like three steps overall, and the end product looks adorable and polished. you could write little messages for a friend and throw them all in a jar for uplifting notes on a rainy day. and after it unwraps, there’s a beautiful wave design. there’s also another way you could incorporate these notes in a different design: the hen box! you can find that here.

this is for everyone who is having technology withdrawals from only having contact with paper for so long. now you can fashion a stand for your phone (i used washi for a sturdier hold, and it is definitely sturdy) and a smaller version for something like a business card.

the cat heart was totally supposed to have its own picture, but the sun was shiny especially bright in that one, so it just didn’t match. so! the cat head from the cat box is the same one for the cat heart, but the heart can very well go on its own, perhaps with an addition of a little note slipped between the two flaps.

the flower is pretty self explanatory; you can make it with smaller sizes of paper or paper printed with gradients, which makes the gradual fade from center of the flower to the petals. i bunched the bunny with this because it didn’t turn out the best, and i had the worst time trying to figure out the video. even the channel owner recognized the camera was bad quality, but there are many other videos for cute origami bunnies on youtube!

the bowtie has the same tutorial as the first bow i did in the very first picture because i’m apparently incompetent with scissors and messed up the ribbon part. so i ended up just snipping them off. these would be super cute on a father’s or mother’s day card, so here’s a tutorial for how to make an easy collar to complement the bowtie.

lastly, the fish looks good with a pattern on one side, so it kinda looks scaly, and it “swims!” the tail separates, so when you rub the two sides, it swims!

★

Ah, so there it is. This was just a wonderful experience dabbling into the art of origami, and now I shall feel accomplished looking at the plethora of paper goodies on my table. My six-year-old self who tried and failed at figuring out how to fold lucky stars is finally sated and settling back into her blanket fort with a stick of mozzarella cheese. Now, without transforming too much into a persuasive paper on the effects of modern-day technology on the contemporary human, I do have to say that in a world where stores are accessible at the touch of our fingertips, sometimes we may be so tunnel-visioned by colorful pictures and flash sales and overnight shipping that we don’t realize we possess the capacity for creativity and fashioning something like a gift far more personal than a factory-manufactured one ordered online. This whole experience in researching some of the origins of this art and trying it for myself was pretty inspiring, and I really suggest it because there’s nothing quite like holding a little miniature dachshund in your hand (and learning to spell the breed name correctly).

I’ll end with some bloopies aka exposing my cat for successfully interrupting my photoshoot (totally why this post took like three weeks). She was obviously also very jelly of the paper cats and curious about why I had a collection of perfectly edible jelly beans set aside.

My seventh grade social studies teacher once said that baklava was the food of the gods. And I don’t know whether it was the intense fuchsia of her nails as she waved her hands around for emphasis or the faraway look in her eyes, but that sentiment ended up sticking with me—until I actually tried baklava. I’ll admit, there is an undeniable beauty in the delicate art of assembling the pastry, but I ended up with a raging sugar headache the first time I tried it. Perhaps, as a part of this whole blogging/risk-taking situation, I’ll give it another try. But for now, here is the food of the lazy, ain’t-got-no-time-for-phyllo, to-heck-with-calories gods.

So, I’ve never been the biggest fan of bananas. They are soft and gushy, brown over time, and sometimes are just a pain to get that first puncture through before the peeling. (Am I the only one? Okay.) However, if the nutritionist angel on your shoulder is calling for you to get a good dose of potassium and the self-indulgent devil on the other side is nudging you toward the tub of vanilla pudding in your fridge (because everyone has that…), you can toss this recipe into their little hands (and watch it float to the ground because they’re an angel and devil, for goodness’ sake) because here’s the perfect compromise: banana pudding. Well, it’s preetty perfect, bordering just a little more on the indulgent side, so stagger these servings in appropriate intervals. (I’ll let your shoulder’s angel figure that out for you.)

Yep, take a good look at that, while all that’s left of my health-conscious self wilts away for the rest of this post. Condensed milk, vanilla pudding mix, Nilla Wafers, heavy whipping cream… I banished away my cringy side for this because, sometimes, life just calls for that little cup of occasional unapologetic goodness, right? I mean, there is always the option to lessen the amount of the condensed milk so the actual pudding part isn’t so sweet. That counts for something, right? *insert single sweat emoji*

Now, how on earth did this recipe wander into my household without alerting my mom’s ever-wandering eye and the broccoli security guards she has stationed by all points of entry, you ask? (Oreos very rarely even make it into the shopping cart.) Well, funnily enough, she had tried it at a friend’s party and, entranced by the ‘nana goodness, asked the host to forward the recipe to me. Needless to say, I was bowled over in surprise when I opened that email and viewed its contents, specifically the ingredient list. Still in shock, I then proceeded to zombie-walk toward my printer to collect the recipe. Whatever was happening to my world I was not complaining about.

So naturally, by the time we made it to the supermarket and my mother had finally seen the collection of banana pudding goodies in the cart, it was too late; I was far too emotionally involved and curious about the final outcome to be forced to quit. (I think her pudding deja vu was too good for her to deny the prospect of a tasty round two anyway.)

The recipe, though simple, is probably patience’s worst enemy. Once the pudding mixture is in the fridge, it’s basically a long stretch of waiting until anything else can happen. Cut the bananas? No, they’ll oxidize. Whip the cream? Welp, won’t want to risk it deflating over the course of at least three hours. You can bet I had a timer counting down those three hours. The urge to open the fridge every twenty minutes to jiggle the pudding and obsessively check that I hadn’t forgotten to start the timer was very much present. —What? I was basically working against the sunset and hoping my lighting would stay consistent for the most part… (That’s my alternate defense for my impatience. Just go with it.)

Thankfully, this recurring scrambling-before-the-sun-sets issue will hopefully soon be resolved, as my lights have finally arrived in the mail. They’ll definitely need some experimenting with, but the goal is that y’all won’t be able to tell whether I’m cooking in daylight or in the dark of night…Nothing like my mom returning from her trip to two gigantic umbrella lights…Ha ha ha ha.

Much love for the banana that decided it didn’t want to stay whole while I was peeling it.

I’d say this build-a-pudding assembly line pretty much blows out all those crazy Industrial Revolution ones out of the park in terms of yumminess. Nilla, ‘nana, pudding, r-r-repeat. Nananaaaa…

Sprinkle in the instant vanilla pudding mix while whisking to avoid clumps and continue until mixture is fully incorporated.

Set this aside in the fridge overnight or 3 hours (as I did, if the patience is running low.) Continue onto step 4 whenever the pudding is finished chilling.

Slice the bananas into slices, as thinly or thickly as you prefer! (I opted with a Goldilocks right in the middle situation.) I also recommend slicing more on a diagonal so the slice can cover more surface area.

Cover with plastic wrap so they don’t oxidize and turn funky colors!

Pour the whipping cream into a bowl and whip until stiff peaks form. (Careful not to over-whip!)

Remove the pudding from the fridge, tip it into the whipping cream, and gently fold until fully incorporated with no more pudding streaks. (Don’t stir like crazy and knock all the fluffy air out!)

Ricky Martin is playing in the background (La Copa de la Vida Ricky, that is) while the fragrant signature smells of chili waft up from the gurgling pot at the stove. There are the notes of garlic in the air and tomato…Oh, wait. That is not exactly how my Saturday went.

As much as Ricky Martin would have been a delightful addition to my 5pm Saturday kitchen ambience, with the sun setting outside way too quickly (don’t go, natural lighting), I settled instead with abusing the little speakers on my cell phone by blaring Pandora and awkwardly skipping songs with the one part of my pinky that wasn’t touched by garlicy remnants or coated with spices.

Alright, okay. So, let me start at the beginning. I know I spoke about taking risks in my first post, but I confess this was a recipe I tried earlier that week during my school’s cooking class. Look—my sister and dad were dinnerless (and dangerously teetering toward the hangry stage), and I didn’t yet possess the nerve to whip up a totally new and foreign recipe that might have potentially reaped disastrous results. So! Chili it was.

I proceeded to power through the shopping list of things I didn’t have at the crowded Whole Foods like a madwoman, only pausing once to marvel at a gigantic basket spilling with adorable little bunny finger puppets. (There were so. Many.) I made a straight beeline for the “serrano” peppers which I snatched up, and I say “serrano” because they were quite unlabeled, and there was neither any employees around nor cell phone service for me to confirm the identity of these peppers. (Yaaay, risk taking…Impulsive mystery pepper buying…I do not condone this. ☺) In my defense, they really looked close enough.

Once home, madwoman phase two kicked in, and I speed chopped everything— almost everything. Note the minimally chopped onion in the picture below, which I asked my dad to dice up because my eyes are painfully sensitive. (Like, mini-twin-Nile-Rivers-running-down-my-face sensitive.) I sliced the zucchini into rounds instead of dicing it because it softens up so nicely without breaking apart and adds a great shape variety in the chili. Also, as tablespoony as the minced garlic looks, there was an extra secret stash off-screen because garlic is wonderful and just puts the g in fla(g)vored-packed. (Aka I halved the recipe but kept forgetting to look at the modified quantities…)

So after a whirlwind of an hour and a half of standing over the stove/cooking rice while frantically chewing on gum (to ward off the remaining onion smells) and dealing with the faint burn in my fingers from cutting the peppers with my bare hands (pro tip: wear plastic gloves!), the chili was finally done. What a satisfying feeling it is to heft a steaming pot of homemade chili around. Sniffing the deliciousness while I teetered over it on a stool with a camera in hand…Well, that was just a wee bit torturous.

I topped it off with buttery avocado, sour cream, which adds the perfect amount of tang, and a sprinkle of cheese—because chili just needs cheese, and it’s me. I also scooped some rice on the bottom, which will perhaps make itself onto a separate post. Wink, wink.

I have to say, this chili is more preparation-based than anything, with the chopping of the produce and all, but otherwise, there’s just some stirring and keeping tabs on the cooking process. So, it’s really perfect if you ever want to whip up some delicious comfort food and then portion out some of it to keep in the fridge for a busy day some time down the week. Have someone help you with all the chopping if you’re making more. I promise, it’s a rather soothing process once you get into it, and there’s no better activity to start some conversation (or listen to Ricky Martin) to!

By the way, for my people who go to Indian restaurants and repeat “ALL MILD, PLEASE” after every order, this chili isn’t the fan-your-mouth, eyes-watering kind of spice at all. It’s a tingly kind of warmness, which I love, so there’s no need to have a glass of cold milk at the ready, unless that’s your thing. I did remove all of the seeds in the serrano, so if you can handle the heat, however, leave some in!

So, whale, whale. That’s about it for my first official post after my first post. I found it quite fitting to pay homage to an old-school Food Network great, Emeril Lagasse, after all my FN fangirling. I hope you try this recipe out for yourself and totally floor your parents or S.O. with it. Or just yourself. Because there’s absolutely no problem with that.

Until next time, go out there and, in the words of Emeril, “kick it up a notch!”

Psst, well, hi! Hello. After over two weeks of wrestling with a blog name, (and by that, I mean failing miserably many a time with desperately formed puns) I’ve finally chosen one and decided it is about time I honed all of my excitement into writing my first blog post. Now, I do not put it lightly when I say excitement. The eleven-year-old Jackie in me who grew up trying to follow Alton Brown’s quick-fire commentary on the Iron Chef or listening to Giada’s way of pronouncing spaghetti (spah-gee-ti) is very thoroughly enthused. (You’ll understand what I mean later.)

Welcome to tinykale, a product of eighteen years of watching Food Network and an intense desire to compile my thoughts and experiences somewhere so I might be able to return to them someday and read them to my legion of dogs and cats.

The idea of a cooking blog documenting my kitchen shenanigans has always waved at me from among my brain’s collection of ideas, too overshadowed by thoughts of homework and SATs and college apps to really motivate me to do much with it. (Did I really want to tell the interwebs about the time I made an apple pie for a family party and forgot the sugar?)

However, as a high school senior who has earned enough credit for graduation, a semester internship is offered at my school. Yes, a whole half school year for all that thrilling (and nerve-wracking) enter-the-real-world realness to happen. And after some experimentation with that, it was upon my teacher’s suggestion and perhaps my emerging inner writer/foodie that blogging became a very possible option. I couldn’t deny it now. I had the time and the resources—did I mention time? I was flat out of excuses, and that little seed of an idea in my head was begging to grow and bloom. So after some discussion (and little consideration on my part), three periods of my school day have become periods dedicated to my creation of content for tinykale. (Actually my dream come true. Actually. Livin’ a fairykale over here…)

So what exactly is the content for tinykale?

In case I was too subtle about it, definitely cooking. I’ve always played it more or less on the safe side, only trying recipes within the four to five star range and reading over reviews like I’m trying to buy something off Amazon instead of being adventurous in the kitchen. But now it’s about time for me to say kale yeah!to taking culinary risks and paying homage to all the hours I spent watching chefs and home cooks alike do their thing on the big screen. I intend on documenting all of my kitchen exploits here, embarrassing forgot-the-sugar moments and all! Hopefully, along with my writing skills, I will also improve on photography, learning the ins and outs of a fancy camera and providing those HD-color balanced-unwashed-out photos to complement the writing.

But I also want to write about other topics and interests of mine. Some posts may cover things as specific as do-it-yourself crafts or as random as a visit into the city or as meaningful to my life as organic eating.

All in all, tinykale will be an honest online journal, and hopefully you will join me for the fun, bumbling, and sometimes messy ride. I hope we will soon become more than just author and reader but experiencers together. Here’s to those little seeds of ideas blooming into something great and worthwhile—perhaps a leafy piece of kale.

With ♥,

Jackie

P.S. If you looked at the bolded first letters trying to see if they formed a coded message, I’m sorry to have disappointed.